2013 Macbook Pro only accessible through safe boot w/external display

[reamtop_chunt]

Hi all,

I recently began encountering an issue with my late 2013 13" Macbook Pro. It happened shortly after I updated to 10.14.3, but i'm not sure that's the issue.

Broadly speaking, the issue is that I only see a black screen. Backlight is on, Apple logo on case lights up, caps lock green LED activates. Oddly, keyboard backlight is not on.

I tried resetting the SMC and PRAM with no success.

By hooking up an external monitor, I see that upon boot I get the normal Apple logo with progress bar, but when it gets to a certain point near the end up the boot process, the screen goes white, then black, then gray. No cursor or anything.

When I safe boot (still with an external monitor attached), the boot process finishes and I can actually log in, access files, etc. Still nothing on the Macbook display, though. Only the external works.

From there I ran Apple Diagnostics, which found no problems. I attempted Internet Recovery, which did not fix anything. Turned off a few superfluous startup items, but I doubt those were the culprit.

My best guess is there's something up with the graphics card, but I have no idea what it is. Seems weird that it's not sending anything to the built-in display, but it drives an external display, but only in safe mode. Some kind of extension conflict? I have no idea!

Any thought appreciated.

Thanks,
Joe

 

[gigapocket1]

did the 13" MBP's have 2 graphics card that year? wondering if you need to set it to run on the discrete graphics card only.. which makes sense if it only works when plugged in externally.
Try going to system preferences / energy. and try turning off automatic graphics switching. that will force discrete graphics all the time.

 

[reamtop_chunt]

Only one graphics card in this one, so that's not it (was hopeful there for a moment).

I have now also Internet Recovery again and realized that was failing too—after the countdown, the Apple logo shows up on the external monitor for a moment, then the screen goes white, black, gray. Same as when I try to start up not in safe boot.

The curious thing about that, though, is I then hear a voice saying "To use English as the main language, press return." Which I do, but nothing happens.

So, I dunno...

Thanks for the input, though!

did the 13" MBP's have 2 graphics card that year? wondering if you need to set it to run on the discrete graphics card only.. which makes sense if it only works when plugged in externally.
Try going to system preferences / energy. and try turning off automatic graphics switching. that will force discrete graphics all the time.